In this week’s post, I’m going to be writing about staying focused. Especially now, in an age of social media and content overload, everybody is posting and sharing in our newsfeed. We will never have an end to the amount of information and content that’s being put out there.
But if we’re not careful, we may get stuck in the overload of information, clicking and browsing every single video and article that may catch our attention. And when we get out of it, we’re like, “What was I doing for the past hour? Where did my time go?”
We’re so used to opening up our phones to feed our minds at the slightest break or pause we have. And this is affecting how our brains are focusing. Our brains have become accustomed to getting small doses of stimulation that it’s become a habit. Every time we think of something, we’re so used to picking up our phones and Googling about it. It’s become second nature.
So when we’re trying to get some work done, work that requires us to stay fully focused on the task, we may struggle because our brains are constantly buzzing and telling us to look at our phones, our email or Google something that we want to have for dinner.
I know this because this happens to me. I’ve realised that when my phone is not with me, I tend to want to look for my phone and Google something that came up randomly as I’m say, bathing the children. It’s what brain has become accustomed to. Googling random stuff that pops up in my mind.
So here I’m going to share with you three ways that has helped me to stay focus when I need to get important work done or just to be present with my children, husband, friends and family.
- Get rid of all those tabs on your browser.
When you have work that requires your focus, it’s great to get rid of all the distractions you have. Like right now, I’m writing this blog post and the only tab I have on my browser is this one of WordPress. If I were to have Facebook, Gmail, YouTube or whatever tab opened at the same time, it’s likely that my eyes would move from each tab, looking if I have any new notifications and such. This takes some focus out of what I’m supposed to do – which is writing.
If you want something done fast, you’ll need to be focused. Your brain needs time to get into the flow of the task, to have a smooth train of thoughts. If you’re constantly looking at other distractions, this will affect the flow of your work. You’ll take more time to complete your task.
Having so many tabs open will only take the focus out of what you’re supposed to be doing and will eat up on your time. Just keep open the tabs that are required for you to complete the task you’re doing right now.
2. Stop multi-tasking.
I used to take pride in the fact that I was a good multi-tasker. I could do so many things at once. Especially women, we multi-task a lot. We can cook, clean and look after the kids all at once.
But I’ve realised that if I needed to get important stuff done most efficiently and effectively, I needed to stop multi-tasking and stay focused. The less I multi-tasked, the more I could get done. The less I multi-tasked, the more time I had to do other things like being present with my family.
If you need to get important work done, try to carve out an hour of your day doing it without any distractions. Put your phone on silent mode (at least the group notifications, if you’re afraid you may get urgent messages). Close the door. Make sure the kids don’t disturb you for that one hour. When you’re doing too many things at once (aka multi-tasking), what’s supposed to take you an hour may take you up to four times longer. This is because you’re checking your phone, you’re shouting at the kids to stop fighting, you’re breastfeeding your baby and you’re cooking dinner all at the same time.
When I need to do work that requires my undisturbed focus, like blogging, for example, I would do it at night after the kids are sleep. Trying to blog during the day when the kids are awake will be almost impossible. I’d be sitting in front of the computer all day, writing a few sentences and then getting disturbed all the time as the kids squabble or ask for biscuits and jam.
3. Get back your mornings and plan your days.
This has been the most helpful for me. Almost every morning, I make a list of all the things I need to get done. I say almost because sometimes I forget or my laziness gets the better of me (I’m human). Planning my days is so important, because, like I mentioned before, I am a recovering multi-tasker. I have so many things I want to do, and they’re buzzing around in my head. This buzzing in my head makes me want to move from one task to the other without really getting anything done.
I started this routine of planning my days, weeks and months less than a year ago, and I’ve noticed that I’m much calmer and productive on the days where I’ve done some planning in the morning. If you’re not planning your days, weeks, months and year, you can start with just planning your day. Trust me, it will change everything.
This is how my daily planning goes. I’d list down every single thing that I feel I need to do. Just get it out of my head so I can stop thinking about it. Once it’s listed down, I’d number each item in terms of urgency or priority. So I’d put number 1 on the item that must be done first because it has a deadline, for example. Then I’d number the items 2, 3, 4 etc in order or priority.
Once I’ve figured out what needs to be done first, second, third and so on, I start putting it in my day. I write down the hours of the day in my notebook and for each hour, I write down the task that needs to be completed based on its priority. So for the item that was listed as number 1 above, I’d put it as the first thing to do in the morning. Of course there are some things, even though they are important, can only be done late at night when the kids are asleep. So I’m aware of the times in the day when it’s best for me to do certain tasks.
I’ve found that when I schedule a time for every task that must be done, it helps me to stay focused and prevents me from wanting to hop from one task to the other (aka multi-tasking again). This is because I’ve already told myself that I’ll get to those tasks later.
Now usually I would have about 6 to 8 items to do in a day (this depends on how busy or how many projects I have), but I would usually get to only do 3 to 4 most important things in that day. The rest would be scheduled for the following day.
So there you have it. Three tips to help you stay focused in your day. I hope they’ll be helpful to you. Now it’s your turn to share with me in the comments. Are you guilty of not being focused enough? What are you going to do today to make sure that you eliminate distraction and start focusing on what’s important in your life?